James Franco to play Tommy Wiseau in Alamo native's screen adaptation

James Franco will play Tommy Wiseau in a film based on Alamo native Greg Sestero's book "The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room," according to TheFilmStage.com.

Franco, a Palo Alto native, announced in February that he would direct and produce the film version of the book, which chronicles Sestero's experience making what many have called the worst feature film ever made, in which Wiseau wrote, directed and starred. Over the past decade it's become a cult classic, with regular screening all across the country.

Sestero told Bay Area News Group that he will likely be played by Dave Franco (James Franco's brother), though Zac Efron is also a possibility. Seth Rogen is coproducing.

James Franco attends the premiere of Tribeca Film's "Palo Alto" at Directors Guild Of America on May 5, 2014 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

According to The Film Stage website, Rogen recently appeared on satellite radio's Opie & Anthony Show to confirm Franco will play the lead role.

"This won't be an expensive movie," Rogen said, laughing. "I saw it like 10 years ago for the first time, like right when it came out. I had just moved to L.A. and there would be billboards for it and ads and stuff like that. I remember I saw it with Jonah Hill actually, randomly, and then we became obsessed with it, like it was the greatest (expletive) thing we had ever seen."

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Of Wiseau, Rogen says he's "serious. Totally, totally serious. But that's what's interesting as we talk about it and work on the movie. It's your instinct to just say, '(Expletive) this movie. It's a horrible piece of (expletive). Why would you do this? What an idiot.' But what you can't ignore is that there's tons of bad movies that aren't watchable and that no one watches over and over and over again. So there is something that you kind of have to give credit to. Because of all the (expletive) movies, he made one that people still watch 10 years later. People love it, so there's obviously something -- no effort of the guy who made it -- but there's something oddly brilliant about it in a way."

Rogen said of Sestero, "His character would be the star of the movie. But yeah, it's crazy. He's still friends with Tommy. Again, for Greg, it's bizarre too because he wanted to be a serious actor and he ends up in that. He knows it sucks though, as it's happening. But he, at the same time, seems to be like, it's a movie. Somebody's actually making a movie."